[Raellus]

The two prisoners are secured, separated. Cap and PR handle interrogations, while Sarge supervises the collection of weapons and ammo from the dead. The GAZ is effectively destroyed, but its carcass yields ¼ of a tank of methanol, a DShKA heavy machinegun, and 200 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition.

The first prisoner, literally shaking in his boots, sings like a bird. He tells his captors everything. Thirteen Polish deserters took control of a nearby hamlet about a month ago, and have been waylaying unwary passersby ever since. The villagers do not willingly support their activities; they are, however, forced to feed the deserters. The frightened prisoner tells the Americans which houses in the hamlet his comrades currently occupy. There are no perimeter defenses of any kind. The party’s APC rolled over a pressure plate-activated shaped-charge IED- the marauders' attempt to work smarter, not harder. Luckily for the Diamonds, the charge was not particularly well made or employed. So much for "smarter".

The second prisoner is a little less forthcoming, but he confirms everything reported by his comrade.

The Diamonds decide to send the second marauder into the village with a message: leave town or face the consequences. And answer confirming imminent compliance is expected within 30 minutes. He’s hurried on his way by a burst of AK fire.

Meanwhile, in addition to the fuel and ammo from the wrecked truck, the party recovers two 5.45mm Tantal rifles, ten Polish-made AKMs, a PM-84 submachine gun, and an FB-64 pistol.

After about 30 minutes, a villager approaches at a jog. She tells the Diamonds that the marauders have agreed to leave the village, but intend to take a couple of hostages along with them to assure that they are not attacked during their evacuation. The hostages will be released once the marauders feel reasonably safe. The Diamonds don’t like the counter-offer, but agree that the concession- as long as it isn’t some sort of ruse- will result in fewer civilian and friendly casualties than storming the marauder’s compound. They send the villager back with the second prisoner and a message: “If the hostages aren’t back home within two hours, we’ll hunt you down and, this time, no quarter will be given.”

The Diamonds load their loot aboard Pole Position and mount up. After another 30 minutes pass, they drive towards the hamlet. When they arrive, they’re confronted by a distraught mother, whose daughter was taken hostage. The Diamonds assure the middle-aged woman that if her daughters not back in 1.5 hours, they’ll go after her, and won’t return until she’s back home. This only calms the mother down a little. Other villagers trickle out of their homes, curious to see the Americans that have rid them of their unwanted guests, and wondering if they’re any different than the Poles they just displaced.

A few minutes after the deadline passes, just before the Diamonds' SKOT is about to depart on the promised rescue mission, the two hostages return.

The villagers are relieved; some express gratitude, others are understandably wary. The marauders were a hungry bunch and had been growing fat on the village’s produce. The residents are reluctant to let the Americans stay for more than a few hours, lest they become too comfortable and decide to stay for a month. The Diamonds want to spend at least one night in the village. They figure it’s a relatively safe place in which to do so, being as the Polish deserters/marauders weren’t bothered by PACT forces for the last month or so. After some negotiation, a deal is struck. The Americans will stay in the village for no more than 24 hours. In exchange for food and hospitality, the Diamonds agree to part with most of the small arms captured from the bandits, and train the villagers to use them. The villagers like the idea of being able to defend themselves, especially since the four surviving bandits might return when the Americans leave.

By dawn of the next day, everyone but Vasquez and Honeybear has fallen ill, with some combination of fever, cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea. At first, some suspect they've been poisoned by yet another band of duplicitous Polish villagers, but Deacon quickly concludes that's unlikely. The team medic suspects the sick have contracted whatever the desperate refugees who stormed the Diamonds’ forest camp two nights ago had- either dysentery or cholera, most likely. Employing some herbal folk remedies, a helpful villager (one of the hostages) nurses the infirm Americans. On day two, Grease and Deacon recover. Deacon teams up with the village “nurse” to care for the sick- on day 3 everyone but Bird recovers. He is sick for two more days, nearly dying.

During this time, Sarge teaches a few villagers how to handle the marauders' small arms- loading/unloading, field stripping, and dry-firing them. They want to actually fire the weapons, but he's reluctant to allow it, lest the noise attract attention. The group is going to have to stay put for at least a couple more days until the wrung-out team marksman is back on his feet. Also, during these last 5 days, some of the villagers dig a shallow mass grave for the dead marauders who were stinking up outskirts of the settlement. The Diamonds would have pitched in (after all, they made the mess), if they weren't recovering from illness.


Ref’s Notes:
For the interrogation, Cap, with PR helping, rolled three targets on a Persuasion/interrogation roll so the prisoner told her everything. She rolled one target for the second prisoner, so he simply confirmed what the first had told her, adding little.

This wasn't a true encounter per se, but more of a natural continuation of the previous one. Still, I pulled a card for the villagers' attitude and the result was "Curious" (as in, about the newcomers).

Disease rules came into play for the first time. Even rolling two d12, Deacon failed to heal Bird until day 5, after he'd reached 0 HP. What a way to go, that would have been.

Fortunately, I only pulled repeat or inapplicable RECs for the 5 days the Diamonds were stuck in town, so there were no encounters to deal with. I only rolled once per day, instead of once per shift, given the isolated nature of the ville. I figure the sick wouldn't be eating a lot, but on Day 3 HB preps the second (and last) chicken. They didn’t have to eat any of their own rations while staying in the ville (as per the agreement), and all canteens were refilled.

The unit expended a lot of ammo destroying the marauders, so Sarge swapped his M16A2 for an AKM (for which 17 mags were recovered) and distributed his remaining mags/5.56mm rounds among his teammates.

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